A Debt of Three Lives
Thud. Thud.
Yu Sucheon nudged the bloodied, collapsed Jeon Akgwan with his foot.
There was no response.
The man looked as though he had either passed out or was on the verge of death.
Staring at the blood-soaked floor, Yu Sucheon muttered quietly.
“If you don’t get up, I’ll hit you.”
“Hic!”
Jeon Akgwan shot upright.
So the bastard had been pretending to be unconscious, waiting for the fight to end.
Whack—!
Yu Sucheon struck the back of Jeon Akgwan’s head.
Last time he’d peeked out while hiding; this time he played dead. He really covered every angle. Damn bastard.
“Want me to make sure you never open your eyes again?”
“N-no, sir. I really did lose consciousness……”
“Well, you did help us survive this time, so I’ll let it slide…… or not?”
Whack—! Whack—! Whack—!
Jeon Akgwan was struck until the back of his head was nearly worn smooth. He deserved every blow for lying comfortably on the floor and simply watching the fight instead of helping.
While others nearly died, he just sprawled on his belly and rested?
“Stand up straight.”
“I…… I’m still a patient. I’m injured. Gack! Please stop hitting me! Aigoo—!”
Crack!
Yu Sucheon’s palm slammed into the sword wound on Jeon Akgwan’s back.
“Graaah! Spare me!”
“Get ready to return home.”
“I was wrong, so…… What? Return home?”
“What else? Planning to live here? Tch.”
Yu Sucheon turned his head.
Jeon Akgwan’s wound was no shallow cut. It was deep enough that blood still dripped onto the floor. He had only softened slightly because of the blood the man was losing.
‘No…… If that guy doesn’t recover quickly, I’ll have to cook alone again. That’s all it is.’
Regardless, the fight was over. That was the full extent of his thoughts.
Perhaps because Dan Hyunwoo and Hwa Yuhwa had handled everything, there was simply nothing left to feel.
Yu Sucheon gazed quietly at Dan Hyunwoo.
‘I knew he was strong, but…… damn human.’
Watching the earlier battle, he had felt it deeply. Dan Hyunwoo stood at a realm so distant and overwhelming that it defied comparison.
Even now, goosebumps still lingered on his arms.
Dan Hyunwoo approached.
“Bring the magistrate to the Danga Manor. He was tortured severely.”
In the past, Yu Sucheon might have said something. Why go to such lengths to save a mere magistrate?
But now, he felt no desire to argue. After witnessing that martial prowess, the polite reply came out naturally.
“Understood.”
Dan Hyunwoo studied Yu Sucheon closely.
‘He’s being obedient today.’
Just days ago the man had been ready to eliminate Song Wolun at the first opportunity, yet now he was strangely compliant.
Dan Hyunwoo turned his gaze to Song Wolun.
The magistrate looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.
“Young master, thank you. You have saved my life twice now. How could I ever repay such grace?”
Song Wolun deliberately emphasized “twice.”
‘So he realized what happened eight years ago.’
Tears continued to fall from Song Wolun’s eyes. They were no different from the tears Dan Hyunwoo had seen eight years ago.
Back then, he had not looked closely at the face that had stared at him with trembling eyes while desperately holding back emotion.
But now, the man he had saved stood right before him.
For some reason, a faint ache and a swelling warmth stirred in his chest.
Dan Hyunwoo placed a hand on Song Wolun’s shoulder.
“Treatment first.”
“Understood. We can speak of the past later.”
Song Wolun nodded, his eyes still wet with tears.
The sensation was oddly ticklish, and hearing the person he had once saved speak this way felt slightly awkward. No, unfamiliar.
He had always saved people and left in haste.
Hwa Yuhwa finished searching the pockets of the thirty surviving Black Wind Blood Unit members she had defeated, then spoke.
“Nothing of note. Still, the magistrate needs treatment quickly. The torturer struck several vital points with needles.”
She pointed at the man who had fallen alongside the Black Wind Blood Unit, struck down by Dan Hyunwoo’s blade. A large needle-like object was still clutched in his hand. His body, severed at the waist, continued to gush blood.
The gruesome sight revealed what had transpired here moments earlier.
Yet Dan Hyunwoo turned away as though accustomed to such carnage.
“Let’s return home. Everything is finished.”
“Yes.”
Hwa Yuhwa answered with a smile. Yu Sucheon and Jeon Akgwan nodded in relief.
It was over.
The night had felt long.
Yet dawn still seemed far away.
* * *
Song Wolun’s wounds were more severe than expected.
Though not much time had passed since the injuries, sticky pus already oozed from his leg.
The title of torturer was no empty boast; the man had damaged his meridians with needle-like skewers.
‘Quite skilled.’
Hwa Yuhwa examined the wounds closely. Something felt off.
The cuts were so precise that Song Wolun let out a groan. Even after being given a paralytic, the pain of having his body pierced seemed unbearable.
“Shall we stop here for today?”
“Th-thank you.”
“Stay at the Danga Manor until your treatment is complete.”
Song Wolun nodded.
Given his personality, he might have insisted on leaving immediately, yet he obeyed without protest. It was slightly strange.
Jeon Akgwan, watching from the side, wore a pitiful expression.
“Um…… What about my treatment?”
They had forgotten him.
His fierce appearance made it seem as though he would never die.
After finishing Jeon Akgwan’s treatment as well, Hwa Yuhwa went to Dan Hyunwoo’s room.
The magistrate’s wounds weighed on her mind.
“Commander, are you asleep?”
“Come in.”
Upon entering, she saw Dan Hyunwoo sitting cross-legged in thought, a familiar sight from their Mumyeongdae days.
Dan Hyunwoo opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Something seems to be bothering you.”
“The torturer who tortured the magistrate. Judging by the wounds he inflicted, he wasn’t a professional torturer by trade. He was originally a physician. And a highly skilled one at that.”
“Why would such a person become a torturer?”
“In terms of skill, he’s probably close to a divine physician. Someone like that wouldn’t be hired by a mere Chu Hoseon. With that level of ability, the Heavenly Demon Cult or the Saheol Alliance would have recruited him.”
Chu Hoseon had been handed over to the county office upon leaving the estate. The constables who now knew he was the mastermind behind the attack would not let him off easily.
By now, he was likely screaming and confessing everything.
“So you’re saying he disguised himself as a torturer to hide his identity and infiltrate Hangzhou.”
“The question is why he needed to disguise himself and infiltrate Hangzhou……”
Hwa Yuhwa fell into thought, then spoke after a moment.
“I’ll look into it further. It seems he planned to do something after killing Song Wolun, blending in with the Black Wind Blood Unit and the assassins. The problem is what that something was.”
“Your intuition is usually accurate, so I’ll leave it to you.”
“Don’t I get a reward? I was active this time and even discovered something suspicious. If you give me a reward, I might feel more motivated to uncover his identity quickly.”
Hwa Yuhwa adjusted her seated posture. Her smooth, pale thighs peeked out slightly.
Before long, she wore a seductive expression. Her long, white fingers traced her vividly red lips.
An overwhelming allure filled the room.
“What kind of reward will you give me? I don’t want money. I already have more than you anyway.”
“I’ll have them make your favorite sweet-and-sour pork tomorrow. Since it’s not money, that should be fine, right?”
“Eh? Sweet-and-sour pork?”
Dan Hyunwoo grabbed Hwa Yuhwa by the nape of her neck, opened the sliding door, and tossed her outside.
Thud.
Hwa Yuhwa landed on the floor in her seductive pose, staring blankly at Dan Hyunwoo.
But.
Click.
The sliding door closed. The lantern light illuminating it soon went out as well.
‘How could he! I practiced that expression so much!’
Her seductive lips parted in shock.
At that moment, Yu Sucheon, heading to his room to wash and sleep, witnessed the scene.
“Hic!”
The sight of her smooth, pale thighs illuminated by moonlight nearly stopped his breath.
No, it might have already stopped.
What kind of reward was this?
Hwa Yuhwa’s eyes widened.
“What are you looking at!”
In an instant, the exposed thighs vanished beneath her robes. The shoes she had kicked off flew into her hands.
Whoosh!
A shoe brimming with inner energy struck Yu Sucheon squarely on the nose.
A scream erupted.
“Aigoo! I’m dead. But I’m happy to die!”
* * *
Fifteen days passed.
Magistrate Song Wolun no longer felt any discomfort while walking.
‘Incredible. A divine physician among divine physicians.’
Hwa Yuhwa had miraculously erased even the scars. No trace remained of the torture he had endured.
She had also refused any payment.
Fourteen days ago, while devouring the suddenly prepared sweet-and-sour pork, she had spoken in an angry voice.
“Hmph! I don’t care about money, and I didn’t treat him for money anyway.”
She had seemed very, very angry.
The sweet-and-sour pork had vanished from the table in an instant. It was a mystery how her slender frame could contain so much.
During his stay at the Danga Manor, Song Wolun had learned one more fact.
Moyong Sehui had been at the Danga Manor, and the person who had saved her from the Six Swords Palace’s monsters at the Makgansan Pass was none other than Dan Hyunwoo.
‘Three times. It was three times. Young Master Dan saved my life.’
Even once would be a debt to repay for a lifetime, yet it had happened three times.
Rather than joy, a solemn feeling came first, leaving him only deeply ashamed.
‘Since he keeps saving me like this, I must do my job properly.’
Song Wolun gathered his thoughts and spread out the documents.
Using Chu Hoseon’s full confession as evidence, he had arrested everyone who had aided in the attack.
Of course, for distant locations he could not reach personally, he had requested assistance from the local county offices.
‘With this, we’ve caught nearly all of them.’
There would be no more attacks.
Carrying the list of those arrested, he headed to the prison.
There sat a haggard Chu Hoseon, head bowed as though he had given up on everything.
The man spoke.
“Have you come to mock me?”
“Tomorrow is your execution day.”
At that cold, heavy statement, Chu Hoseon flinched.
He had steeled himself for revenge, but he was too young to transcend the death that now loomed before him.
Song Wolun continued.
“Your last meal will be whatever you wish. But before that, there is one final matter to confirm. Wall Gyeom of the Ghost Path’s Four Killers possessed the Seogang Sword Art, his sect’s ultimate technique. Did you not provide it to him?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because of the testimony from those who funded the assassins’ hiring. They confessed everything about how much they contributed. That amount of money could never hire Wall Gyeom, the top expert of Hebei’s unorthodox factions.”
“You’ve gone to quite some trouble, piecing together something so trivial.”
“You only provided enough money to hire fifty assassins. And you didn’t even retrieve the money from the battlefield.”
“So what do you want me to do? When Wall Gyeom offered to help, was I supposed to refuse?”
“You must have hired Wall Gyeom with the Seogang Sword Art. But an ultimate technique cannot be obtained with money no matter how much you offer. Where did you acquire it to give to him? And the man who tortured me. Where did you meet him?”
“How persistent. So you’ve figured everything out after all. Fine. I’ll tell you, so come closer.”
Song Wolun approached the prison bars at Chu Hoseon’s gesture.
When he drew within a few inches, Chu Hoseon spoke into his ear.
“I’m going to die tomorrow anyway. Did you really think I’d tell you? Go eat dirt. Hack! Ptui!”
Spittle from Chu Hoseon’s mouth struck Song Wolun’s face.
Song Wolun silently wiped it away.
Even after ten hours of daily torture, Chu Hoseon refused to speak about the Seogang Sword Art.
Having committed one final act of malice, Chu Hoseon leaned against the prison wall and gazed at the small window with vacant eyes, lost in thought.
As he retraced his remaining life and the past he had lived, he would spend his final night awake, dreading the arrival of morning.
‘I should head to the Danga Manor.’
Song Wolun turned his back on Chu Hoseon.
Since he was still undergoing treatment, he had been staying at the Danga Manor.
As he opened the door and entered, Dan Hyunwoo happened to be coming out of his room.
Swish—!
Song Wolun quickly lowered his head and stepped aside into a corner to clear the way.
Dan Hyunwoo let out a soft sigh.
“I told you not to do that.”
“Shall I also arrange your shoes neatly in front of you, young master?”
“No…… Just don’t do anything.”
Song Wolun merely smiled brightly without answering.
Did he understand? Dan Hyunwoo had already said this roughly fifty times.
“By the way, young master. Regarding Physician Hwa’s request to investigate the torturer, Chu Hoseon never opened his mouth. Since tomorrow is his execution day, it will be difficult to question him further.”
“Why are they rushing the execution?”
“The Provincial Judicial Commission is pressing for it. A martial artist attacking the county office violates the Non-Aggression between Government and Wulin, after all.”
“It can’t be helped. Yuhwa is looking into this matter separately, so she’ll find a clue.”
Dan Hyunwoo said this and left for somewhere.
Song Wolun watched his retreating figure with a pleased smile, then slowly hardened his expression.
A sudden, strange sense of dissonance made him frown.
‘Wait! Now that I think about it, when Young Master Dan overturned the county office before, the Provincial Judicial Commission stayed silent. Why are they rushing this time?’
The sudden decision to execute Chu Hoseon.
It was as though they were putting on a show for someone, publicly beheading him.
But who was that someone? Why go to such lengths to display it? They had remained silent when Dan Hyunwoo overturned the county office.
A bead of cold sweat trickled down his temple.
‘Could it be…… that the owner of the Six-Horse Golden Plaque that Geum Sochil mentioned……’
Could it be Dan Hyunwoo?
His legs trembled.
Even though there should be no lingering effects from the torture.